Ore-treating apparatus.



UNITED STATES PArnNT onirica.

HERBERT B. WALLING, OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, ASSIGNOR T O WESTERN MINING& EXPLORATION COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF UTAH.

cnn-TREATING APrARATUs.

Speccaton of 'Letters Patent. PatQ/Ilted' NOV. 13,1917.

Application filed January 11, 1917. SerialNo. 141,848.

To aZZ whom t may concern:

`Be it lrnownvthat I, HERBERT B. WALLING, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Salt Lake City, in the county of Salt Lake and Stateof Utah, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inOre-Treating Apparatus, of ,which the `following Ais a specification.

This invention relates to ore treating apparatuses, and moreparticularly to an apparatus for treating what is commonly termedfree-milling ore.

One of the main objects of the invention is to provide an apparatuswhich will eX- tract the liner particles of gold from theore mixturethus avoiding lthe waste of these line particles which takes place inthe ordinary form 0f apparatus in which the pulverized ore mixed withwater is passed over an inclined plate or table. A further object is toto providean apparatus having means for causing the. mixture ofpulverized lore and water to travel a Zigi/.ag or undulating path so asto thoroughly agitate the same and bring the nner particles of gold intointimate contact with the amalgamating plates. Further objects willappear from the detail description.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a side View of the machine with one sideremoved,

Fig. 2 is a section taken on line'2-2 of Fig. l.

The body of the machine comprises the front plate 1, back plate 2, :andthe side plates 3 and 4f. The side plate .et is removablysecured'betweenend platesl and 2 by tie rods 5, vorin any other suitablemanner.

The side plates 3 ands-lare of irregular .polygonal shape, the upperedge of each plate being inclined forwardly and upwardly.v A launder issecured through the front plate 1 adjacent lthe upper end thereof. ThisAlaunder is inclined downwardlyl and rearwardly and communicates, at itsinner end, with a vertical trap or casing? adjacent the kupper endthereof. This casing communicateS'through its inner side, at a,plane'below the inner end of launder 6, withn downwardly andArearwardly inclined plate-supportingframe 8 the lower end ofwhich-communicates with the trough 9 communicating Ywith a verticallyextending casing l0 similar to casing ,7, adjacent the upper endthereof. ,All oppositely inclined frame ll similar to dframe 8communicates withthe 'interior of casing 1,0 at its Vupper end at .aplane vbeneath the lower .end .of frame 8, and at. its lowerfendwwith asimilar vertical casing `12 adjacenttheiupper end thereof. A dischargeVtrough 13 ,communica-tjes Vwith the vinteriorV ing or `plate l5 `ofsheet copper is ,secured about the same over transverse rounded strips16 secured to the sides lof partition member 14. A similar plate .17 issecured `to the inner face ofthe front wally of casing 7, being securedover the strips 1S. A plate Q19 is secured lto the inner face ofthe backwall ofthe casing lover :the strips 20, this plate being also ofcorrugated construction. The plate l'is provided at the center of eachdepression with a transversely .extending and horizontally disposedmercury cup 21, similarcups 22 beingl provided inthe depressions of theouter half of plate l5. The lplate holding frame 8 is provided withanyupper frame 23 and a lower frame 24 secured in spaced relation. by thespacing blocks 25 and 26 at each end thereof. A plurality of roundedstrips 2.7 are secured `to the inner face of frame 23 transverselythereof and in spaced rela-tion. Thesestrips .-serve to support a`corrugated sheet copper plat-e 28.'.secured thereto. A similarplate 29is secured to the .inner face of the lower yfrarne'QA bymeans ofthe'strips 30. The two Vplates 2S and v29 are .so relatively disposedthat vthe ribs of one plate correspond 4with the grooves Aorindentations of ythe yother plate. The upper end of frame 8 islsupportedby a Vsheet metal stirrup 31 which is secured to the inner Wall Taofcasing 7, a suitable opening 32 being provided through .this wall andvcommunicating with the space between thetwo plates. The lower end oftheframe is supportedfin a similar stirrup 33 secured on the inner-end oftrough 9. They twostirrups 31-and 33 are setinto `the walls 7a of casing`7 yand the side wallsof trough Y 9, respectively, and vinto Vthe :ends-of `the iframe S so that their outer Afaces arek flush v with theuouterfaces of the 'casing 7, the

frame 8, and the trough 9. A vertical partition member1 34 is secured tothe inner end of the bottom of trough 9, which is extended for thispurpose. This member 34 extends transversely of the casing and to withina short distance of the bottom of the same corresponding to the member14 of casing 7. A plurality of spaced transversely extending roundedstrips 36 are secured to each face of member 34, and a corrugated sheetcopper plate 37 is secured about this member to these strips. Acorrugated sheet copper plate 38 is secured to the transverselyextending strips 39 secured to the inner face of the back wall '10a ofcasing 10. A similar plate 40 is secured to the strips 41 secured to theinner face of the front wall of casing 10. The plate holding frame 11 isconstructed similarly to frame 8 and is provided with the uppercorrugated plate 42 and the lower plate 43. This frame is inclinedoppositely to frame 8 and the upper end thereof is supported by a sheetmetal stirrup 44 and communicates with the interior of casing 10 belowtrough 9. The lower end of frame 11 is supported by the sheet metalstirrup 45 carried by the casing 12 and communicates `with the interiorof this casing adjacent the upper end thereof. Casing 12 is of similarconstruction to casing 10 being provided with the central partitionmember 46, the plate 47 secured thereon, the bacl corrugated plate 48,and the front corrugated plate 49. A forwardly and downwardly inclineddischarge trough 50 extends through the front plate 1 of the frame, theinner end of this trough being supported by a sheet metal stirrup 51secured to the front wall of casing 12 and communieating with theinterior thereof. A downwardly and forwardly inclined collecting trouoh52 is secured between the side late.

Y 3 and 4 and extends the full interior width of the frame beingpositioned beneath the casings 10 and 12.

In using my machine, the ore which has been pulverized by the usualstamping mill is mixed with water, this mixture being run into thelaunder 6. Previous to running the ore mixture into the machine, thevarious plates are coated with mercury or amalgam, as is usual. Acertain amount of mercury is also placed in the mercury cups 21 and 22,and in the corrugations of the plates 30 and 43, these two platesproviding, in effect, rililes. The ore mixture flows from launder 6 intocasing or trap 7 downward between the corrugated plates 15 and 17, andthen upward between the plates 15 and 19 into the upper end of the frame8 between plates 27 and 30. The mixture then flows between plates 27 and30 and is discharged from trough 9downward between the plates 37 and 38,again flowing upward between plates 37 and 40 into the upper end ofplate holding frame 11. The mixture then flows downward and forwardbetween the plates 42 and 43 into the trap 12 and downward betweenplates 48 and 47, again flowing upward between plates 47 and 49, themixture being discharged through discharge trough 13. During its travelthrough the machine, the ore mixture is thoroughly agitated and iscaused to assume a Zig-zag or undulating path. This results inthoroughly agitating the ore so as to bring the gold particles carriedin suspension thereby into intimate contact with the mercury coatedsurface of the plates and with the mercury contained in the cups 21 and22 and the grooves or hollows of plates 30 and 43. The particles of goldwhich are thus brought in contact with the mercury form an amalgamtherewith, this amalgam being removed and placed in a retort and heatedso as to drive off or vaporize the mercury which is then condensed forfurther use, in the usual mannen By causing the ore mixture to assume acontinuous undulating path of travel and thus bringing the particles ofgold into intimate contact with the mercury coated surfaces of theplates, the very fine particles of gold which are often lost in theordinary form of machine using the flat plates due t0 the mechanicalaction ofthe ore mixture in supporting and transporting these lineparticles, areY saved. For this reason this machine is of great value intreating free-milling ores in which the gold comes in a very finelysub-divided state so that, when the ore is crushed. the gold is in theform of very minute particles.

By removing the side plate 3 of the frame of the machine the amalgamwhich has been formed on the plates mav be quickly and easily removedfor treatment or, if desired, the plates themselves may be maderemovable. To assist in this operation, thecasing 7 is provided with abeveled slide 53 which is mounted in a transversely extending slotformed in the bottom of the casing, the casings 10 and 12 being providedwith similar slides 54 and 55, respectively. By means ofrthese slidesthe casings may be quickly and easily drained to recover any amalgamwhich may collect in the same, the casing 7 discharging into trough 13and the casings 10 and 12 discharging into the trough 52. In practice, Iprefer to place a certain amount of mercury in the bottom of each of thecasings so as to collect the gold from the mixture which passes over thebottom of the casing, this amalgam being discharged and collected in themanner described.

As will be noted from Fig. 1 of the drawings the plate holding frame 8may be reversed so as to have plate 27 for the lower plate and plate 30for the upper plate. This mav be accomplished'by simply rais-l ing theframe out of the stirrups 31 rand 33 and inverting the same, at the sametime interchanging the ends of the frame relatively to the positionwhich they occupied formally. This renders it possible to provide a newplate for the lower plate, the lower plate being the one which isexposed to the greater wear, in the event of this plate becoming toogreatly worn. The lower frame 11 may also be adjusted in the same mannerso as to reverse the relative positions of plates 42 and 43.

There may be slight changes made in the construction and arrangement ofthe different parts of my invention without departing from the field andscope of the same and I intend to include all such changes, as fallwithin the scope of the appended claims, in this application in which apreferred form only of my invention is disclosed.

That I claim is l. In -ore treating machines, a frame, a casing securedin said frame adjacent the front and upper edge thereof, a centralpartition member secured in said casing and extending downwardlytherein, corrugated plates secured to the front and back faces of saidcasing and about said partition member, certain of said plates beingprovided with transversely extending mercury cups, a similar casingsecured in the frame adjacent the back thereof and below the first saidcasing, a downwardly and rearwardly inclined plate holding framedetachably mounted on the two said casings and communicating therewith,and two corrugated plates carried by said frame and mounted in spacedsuper-posed relation.

In ore'treating machines, a frame, a casing secured in said frameadjacent the front and upper edge thereof, a central partition membersecured in said casing and extending downwardly therein, corrugatedplates secured to the front and back faces of said casing and about saidpartition member, certain of said plates being provided withtransversely extending mercury cups, a similar casing secured in theframe adjacent the back thereof and below the first said casing, adownwardly and rearwardly inclined plate holding frame detachablymounted on the two casings and communicating therewith, two corrugatedplates carried by said frame and mounted in spaced super-posed relation,and means for discharging the contents of said casings.

3. In ore treating machines, a frame, a casing secured in said frameadjacent the front thereof, a casing mounted in rear of and below thefirst said casing, supporting stirrups secured to the two said casingsadapted to removably support a plate holding frame, a plate holdingframe mounted in said stirrups and communicating with both of saidcasings, and corrugated plates carried by said frame and mounted insuperposed spaced relation.

4. In ore treating machines, a frame, a casing secured in said frameadjacent the front thereof, a casing mounted in rear of and below thefirst said casing, supporting stirrups secured to the two said casingsadapted to removably support a plate holding frame, a plate holdingframe mounted in said stirrups and communicating with both of saidcasings, and closure members slidably mounted in the bottom of eachcasing whereby the bottom of the casing may be opened so as to dischargethe contents of said casing.

In testimony whereof I aX my signature in presence of two witnesses.

HERBERT B. WALLING.

Witnesses:

EDMUND A. PAUL, LAFAYETTE FELLER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents.

' Washington, D. C.

